A California appellate court held that under the state constitution and the state Water Code, an application for a permit to impound water in a reservoir must state, and the Water Board must determine, that an actual, intended beneficial use, in estimated amounts, will be made of the impounded water...
A California appellate court dismissed a preservation group's suit to enjoin a quarry project under a county initiative that requires new quarries outside an urban zone to be sanctioned by voters. The initiative does not apply to preexisting legal land uses and rights to development. Here, the count...
A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a campground's suit against a reclamation district after intentional levee cuts by the district released floodwater onto the campground property. The district is entitled to immunity under the California Emergency Services Act and under the police...
A California appellate court held that a landfill is an "improvement" within the meaning of the 10-year statute of repose provided by the California Code of Civil Procedure §337.15. The case arose after the current owners of the landfill who turned it into a nursery noticed severe subsidence on...
New York's highest court held that review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) is required before a municipality adopts a resolution approving the annexation of real property from an adjacent municipality, but the extent of the environmental assessment (EA) is dependent on the sp...
A California appellate court upheld a comprehensive municipal storm sewer permit governing 19 local public entities. A building association argued that water quality standards provisions in the permit require strict compliance with state water quality standards beyond what is "practicable" and there...
A California appellate court reversed a trial court decision and granted a neigborhood group's petition seeking the preparation of an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act for a residential project. The trial court erred in ruling that the issues tendered b...
The U.S. Supreme Court adopted all of a Special Master's recommendations in a dispute between Colorado and Kansas concerning the division of waters in the upper Arkansas River. The Special Master's First Report found that Colorado unlawfully depleted the river in violation of the Arkansas River Comp...
A California appellate court held that environmental impact reports (EIRs) prepared for two retail shopping center projects violated the California Environmental Quality Act. The EIRs do not fulfill their informational obligations because they failed to consider the projects' individual and cumulati...
The Ninth Circuit upheld a district court decision staying a Nevada State Engineer's ruling granting the U.S. and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of Indians' applications to make temporary changes to two water rights set forth in the Orr Ditch Decree, a 1944 federal court decree quieting title to cert...